Student who hacked Exams Dept web arrested

A student who accessed the 2021 G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination results by hacking the Examinations Department’s website was arrested by the Cyber Crime Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department yesterday.

This school student who stole the results list of 270,000 Advanced Level students had set up a separate web portal similar to that of Examinations Department for the candidates to check their results.

The suspect is presently studying Information and Communication Technology at a leading school in Galle, Police said.

CID sources said that this student was arrested following an extensive investigation carried out by the Cyber Crime  Division of the Department based on a complaint made by Examinations Department chief L.M.D.Dharmasena. It is possible to check the examination results including A-level results through the Examinations Department website only by entering the Candidate’s index number or his or her national identity card number Apart from that, the examination results have never been given by name checking and the confidentiality has been protected to the maximum extent.

“But this student had made it possible to check the results of the students by entering the names of the candidates through his web portal,” he said. This new web portal has given a facility to those who accessed to check the results even when the full name of the candidate who appeared for the exam is not completely known.

When the known part of the name is entered, the names of all the candidates who appeared for the exam are displayed and facilities are provided there to check the result list by selecting the particular name. This student’s parents are teachers. The CID states that he also has two elder sisters. One of the sisters is studying at a university and the other sister is studying in an Advanced level class.

Investigators said that this student had shared his knowledge on how to hack websites and steal data through Telegram group which has over 5,000 members comprising school students who are studying technology.

The officers of the Cyber Crime Division had strategically entered this telegram group and observed how information is shared in the group.They have succeeded in identifying an admin first. This admin in question is also a student studying in a leading school and he is a resident of Dehiwala.

The investigators after closely studying the information which was being shared in this Telegram gorup has arrested the suspect student in Galle on Wednesday. Investigators said that the student in question was identified after the official of the Cyber Crimes Division hacked their new web portal. This student had placed a message in the Telegram group that his web portal had been hacked and steps were being taken to restore it.

During the questioning the suspect had said that on one occasion before this, the website of the Examinations Department was hacked and a result document was published through a separate web access earlier too.

Investigations have shown that this activity was not done by this student with any criminal intention and he has done it for fun by using the knowledge he had gained. Investigators said special attention has been paid to the Telegram group, which has a group of around 5,000 students including this student.